Answering questions about kids and the COVID-19 vaccine

Exeter, Ont. -

The Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) has announced that as of 8 a.m. Tuesday, families can book COVID-19 vaccine appointments for those aged five to 11.

As part of the MLHU COVID-19 briefing on Monday, acting Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Alex Summers answered questions from CTV News London as it relates to kids and the vaccine.

 

Q: What if a child is close to turning 12? Do they wait to get a different dose or get what they can get now?

 

A: With the approval of the pediatric dose, we anticipate many questions about kids that are about to turn 12. It's really important that we don't delay in getting vaccinated. Kids have a robust immune system and will have a great immune response to either formulation when they're around the ages of 11 or 12. For kids that are 11, they will receive the pediatric dose, once they turn 12 on their 12th birthday, they'll receive that adult dose. If a child is vaccinated with a pediatric dose because they're under 11 and then they turn 12 before they're eligible for their second dose, they'll receive the adult dose as their second dose. So it all depends on when your birth date is if you're 12 and older, you get the adult dose. If you're 11 years old and 364 days old, you will receive the pediatric dose and again, I anticipate no fundamental difference in the immune response amongst either of those situations. The important thing in all this is not to delay. Protection now is better than protection later. And either one of these vaccine doses for that age bracket will result in substantial protection.

 

Q: With discussion out there about the number of people developing myocarditis or pericarditis, should parents be concerned about thins in young kids being vaccinated?

 

A: Fortunately, the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis from the initial studies that have been done appear to be lower amongst kids under the ages of 12. So the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis just to emphasize that, appears to be lower amongst those under the age of 12. The other key variable that's being considered is the extended second dose interval. As you may have heard, as I have not mentioned today, for kids five to 11 and for everybody frankly moving forward, the interval between your first and second dose will be highly recommended at 56 days or eight weeks and one of the reasons to do that is to decrease the potential risk of myocarditis and it appears that having an extended second dose interval reduces the risk of myocarditis pericarditis. So those are other precautions that are being put in place. I will also emphasize that the risk and severity of the myocarditis and pericarditis events that have been seen following immunization, are less, less severe and less frequent than the myocarditis seen from getting COVID. If you want to avoid myocarditis, the best thing to do is get vaccinated rather than take your chances with the virus itself. And as I mentioned, with the Delta variants, and with us moving indoors, the question of whether you will get COVID-19 is not the question to be asked. It's a question of when. So I would reassure parents and guardians that the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in people of all ages, but those under the ages of 12 in particular, is very, very low, likely lower than the age demographic above it, and reduced further by the extended second dose interval. And just to remember that you're actually reducing the probability that somebody is going to get myocarditis by getting vaccinated because it reduces the risk that you're going to get COVID-19.

Q: How extensively has the vaccine been studied in children that parents and guardians can trust that their kids will be safe in getting the vaccine?

A: The vaccine has been studied extensively in children. The pediatric formulation of the Pfizer vaccine underwent robust phase one, phase two and phase three trials and then was evaluated by Health Canada. Many will know that Canada was a few weeks delayed in in approving the Pfizer vaccine for children relative to the United States. And to me that's encouraging, it demonstrates that the Canadian process was independent and was ours. And we can be confident that this has been reviewed in depth by Health Canada and by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. This vaccine went through a robust phase one, phase two and phase three study. The same studies in fact, that were used to evaluate the adult formulation, the same type of study where a vaccine and a placebo were given to a population of a group of being studied, and the effectiveness and the side effects of those vaccines were studied. And again, what has been shown repeatedly is that this vaccine is highly effective and safe. So we can be very, very confident in the ongoing role of this vaccine to kids in our community.

Q: For kids who were born in 2017 who will be turning five in early 2022, when will they be eligible to receive the vaccine?

A: The province actively is reviewing the plan for kids born in 2017. Obviously kids born in 2016 will be turning five before Dec. 31 of this year. Which means they're either five or they're four and 11 months years of age and the difference between a four and 11 month old and a five year old is immaterial with regards to getting this vaccine. Come January, it’s a little bit of a different story. In January we'll have kids that will be potentially four years and one month old and the advisory committee at the provincial level is determining whether or not we will be moving forward and vaccinating those who are born in 2017 as opposed to turning five at some point next year. So more information to come and again, that's just because the difference between somebody who's four months, four years and 11 months old, to a five year old, is minor, whereas the difference between somebody who's four years and one month old and a five year old is a little bit bigger. So we just need to evaluate that a little bit more closely.

Q: Are the doses for those age five to 11 in fridges in London ready to be administered or are we still waiting for them to arrive?

A: We're still waiting for them to arrive. We anticipate arrival of the vaccine Wednesday or Thursday. Again, not within our control, but that's why the first vaccines will go out on Friday. We want to make sure that we're not canceling appointments. But we want to make sure we've got appointments as soon as possible. So Friday is our go live date. And we eagerly await the arrival of those vaccines. I understand from social media that they arrived in Canada yesterday [Sunday] on a UPS plane. So we know they're in the country and now it's just a function of distribution. I do reflect rather gratefully on the remarkable fact that this vaccine was approved for the pediatric population on Friday, and we already have it in the country and will likely be into kids as of Friday in our region. That's a pretty amazing turnaround. And so we're certainly grateful for that.

 

To book an appointment follow this link or call 226-289-3560 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. seven days a week.